Rear Monopods? Better than Bags?

[brown dog]

Stabilising the rear of a rifle is crucial to accuracy and a rear bag is the norm here.

Until recently, i did not realise that there were alternatives. Like front bipods, sliding vertical legs can be used at the rear too, attached to the rifle and always ready. Attaching to a rear sling swivel stud or rear rail, they hold the rear of the rifle dead steady and also have quick vertical adjustment so are really an upgrade from the traditional bag set up.

I am reviewing the Atlas Accu-shot monopod, which seems good value at £69

and the American CTK Precision P3 which is more than twice that much at £166.

 

Also a Finnish military model by the makers of SAK rimfire moderators, at £93 Here:

 

My perspective is very long range varminting, often over 700y. This requires benchrest accuracy but also can be very quick-fire. The main thing is that one might have to mount at a very significantly uphill or downhill target and be able to make a quarter minute shot. One might also need to move about quite a lot. Conditions can be poor and the terrain rough and uneven.

 

Ignoring any instructions, the fitting of the Accu-shot monopod is the work of moments. Very like a Harris bipod, you simply slacken everything off to expose an internal sling swivel, clip that on to your sling stud, do up the lockring and you’re good to go. For extra security, there is a grub screw that locks it in place. It is very similar on the CTK

(here: Attachment is a single figure IQ job and your sling can be put back on the replacement studs on the monopod, should you require it. Photo here:

 

 

I have a flat stock underside on my Bell and Carlson Tactical, and this threw in an interesting option: the monopod mounts are sloped slightly so that the monopod will end up standing vertically when it is mounted on a normally sloping stock underside. However, if this surface is flat and not sloping in the normal manner (many stocks now feature this) then you can mount the monopod either slightly forward-sloping or backward-sloping

 

I liked it leaning forward ever so slightly and found my left hand instinctively gripped around it instead of going to pinch the rear bag in the normal way. The CTK is a less rounded shape and i found it did not fall to hand quite so smoothly.

Photo here:

 

 

The quick coarser adjustment is actuated by a little button on the Accu-shot and this can be spun around to wherever you want it – it falls immediately to hand. When pressed the rifle can be slid up and down considerably and instantly. This is totally easy to do and you could not get that much vertical in a bag without having to seriously move it about. One finger then slides one of the locking/adjuster rings down to meet this new height and then twiddles this up and down to perform micro adjustments and/or to seriously clamp any play out of the monopod. This is utterly straightforward and rather fun. It is generally quicker than adjusting a rear bag. On the CTK, there is a bayonet-like coarse adjustment, so instead of pressing a button you simply turn the upper barrel a little and it is then sprung longer. A quick turn back stops this height in place and then you can turn the bottom ring to finely tune the height.

 

Now on the Accu-shot the finer adjustment can be done by turning anything from the middle lock ring right down to the bottom of the unit. This is easy and intuitive and absolutely doesn’t interfere with your sight picture. On the CTK though, the thin fine tuning ring is the only thing you can turn to adjust fine height and it is only about a quarter inch from the very bottom. This means that on soft ground you have to use your very fingertips to turn it and obviously the low location of the ring means you’re now feeling around right down in the wet grass. Given that you’re doing this at the final stages of getting your sight picture sorted, it is counter-intuitive and disruptive. Not really a problem on firm ground, but in soft UK conditions this is relevant.

Whilst doing this fine tuning on the Accu-shot, you can’t upset the quick coarse adjustment unless you press in the adjuster button by mistake. On the CTK, however, you can upset the coarse adjustment easily by inadvertently turning the upper ring a tiny bit (think bayonet fitting on a lightbulb) and whoops it shoots up to full height as it isn’t really ever locked, just held in place by a quick bayonet action. This bayonet locking does have a tension adjuster grub screw but I was unable to reach a setting I trusted fully. Other testers, however, found it to be fine and really liked this unit due to its excellent range of height adjustment.

 

On all the monopods, having done this quick rough adjustment, followed if wanted by the fine adjustment, the sight picture is then dead steady. Any concerns about whether these can be as steady as bags are unfounded when using these units. Exactly how a rifle recoils is more important to me; it is absolutely crucial to accuracy. It is also a very personal thing. Myself, I like to adjust the various tensions in the bipod legs, bags etc to get the rifle to come straight back and not fly off high and right. I simulate the recoil until I’m absolutely convinced the real recoil will come straight back. I then keep my eye/sight picture focused right through the shot, recoil and impact as best I can. This feel is adjustable by the tension of one’s fist around the monopod and, on the Accu-shot, by the use of the lockrings. The Accu-shot can be set up absolutely rock solid by clamping everything up.

The affect of using a monopod on one’s POI is no more a factor than how one leans on or pinches the rear bag. Your zero is unaffected by them per se but how you manage the recoil dictates your POI. I would not like to say that they either improve ultimate accuracy or detract from it; no more than I would want to say that using a certain bag will tighten your groups – that would be ridiculous. What you can do is use these useful tools in ways that you cannot use bags.

I personally like a reasonable amount of play in my set up. It is the very largest reason I prefer the Versa-pod type ball-jointed bipods to the Harris ones; one can set them up so that the sight picture is steady but so that on recoil the gun won’t just buck wildy; this helps the sight picture to be maintained throughout the recoil cycle. This is available on the Accu-shot monopod, too – depending on the tension of the fist holding it and on the use of the lockrings, one can set it rock solid or with a bit of rearward play in it to direct the recoil. I like this feature very much. The CTK has no adjustability apart from your hold on it. It has a smidge of rearward play which I like but others may not. This can be reduced by loading it more firmly. The Accu-shot enables play or utter lock-up, so is much more versatile.

 

The SAK monopod is a little different. It is meant to attach to a rail that is inlet into the underside of the stock. I fancied this not one bit so simply screwed it into the sling stud hole, using the sling stud as the screw. Feasibly, one would need to put another screw in to really secure it but this is no great problem. Of course, if one was to fit the full rail, then the monopod could be slid to an optimal position along that rail, which is a boon.

This monopod is somewhat taller than the others at its minimum. Photo of min and max height comparison here:

and here

It is also different from them in that all its adjustment is done by turning the large adjuster ring about an inch from the bottom of the leg. This simply screws the height in or out. There is no coarse quick vertical sliding like the others. However, the thread is not too tight and the adjuster ring very wide so you can really get some fast spin on it and make decent vertical adjustments pretty quickly – simple but perfectly effective. There are no lockrings for firm lock-up and therefore the tension is not variable at all. The monopod simply feels slightly more flexy the higher it goes, like the CTK. You can reduce this by loading it more, of course. I don’t particularly dislike this small amount of play but as mentioned earlier, I lean towards free-recoiling rifle set up. The option to adjust this to one’s liking though is clearly preferable and only the Accu-shot offers this. If one were to find and thread on a suitable lock-ring onto the MIL-SAK’s shaft, i suspect that this play could be locked out easily. This is not standard equipment but would not be hard to come by and would in my opinion significantly upgrade this monopod. Photo of this here:

There is a small button that enables the MIL-SAK monopod to be folded up out of the way. This is the best solution of all the three monopods. It is totally instant. However, total removal is by no means a 10second job like the others.

The foot of the monopod is a stainless steel ball that can have a removable plastic cup placed on it to widen it. I rather liked this feature.

 

 

If you want a stowable fold-up design such as the Accu-shot (it stows by undoing the top locknut and folding it up 90 degrees) then you give up a little compactness. For example, the MIL-SAK folds instantly but it less compact than the others. Photo here:

A non-folding design such like the CTK is an inch more compact at its shortest (3” instead of 4” for the Accu-shot and 5” for the MIL-SAK) which means one can get take more steeply vertical shots....you make your choices. Some will want to instantly get up high (like having no rear bag at all) and some will want the quick-stowable design of the Accu-shot or even more rapid MIL-SAK. CTK at shortest here - has to be removed to get it any smaller:

I initially feared that these monopods would not be tall enough. In fact there is loads of vertical adjustment in them. It actually turns out that what you can’t do is make them any shorter.

Getting downwards shots is no big problem. There are different length Accu-shots available but the standard one is sufficient for shooting fairly considerably downward so unless shooting right down to the bottom of a steep valley, you’ll be fine. With the CTK, there is another inch or so of length, so the CTK is both shorter and longer than the Accu-shot, which is a bonus. The MIL-SAK is the largest of the three.

Monopods’ reputation for screwing down into the ground as you turn them seemed very odd to me. Perhaps it is because these modern ones do the largest movements by simply sliding down vertically; it is only the very fine tuning that is done by rotation. Either way, this is not an issue that rose its head in my testing at all. The MIL-SAK could do so in theory as it requires more rotations than the others but certainly with the wide foot cup on it was not a problem.

All in all, the monopods offer more than traditional rear bags in that one is able, without having to carry anything extra, to stabilise the rear of the rifle but in a way that can be adjusted quickly.

 

The CTK’s main selling point for me is the lower height at lowest and the higher length when fully extended. This is clearly an improvement in both high and low shooting.

The downside to the short design is of course that it does not fold away as the MIL-SAK and Accu-shot do.

More importantly, one cannot adjust the amount of lock-up. The play in the system increases as the extension height increases and cannot be tightened or loosened. The Accushot can be used loose as you like or tight as you like, at the turn of a lockring.

The CTK is also considerably more money than the others.

It is nonetheless a step forward from bags in the eyes of this reviewer.

If the CTK were the same price as the Accu-shot, I could see many people choosing it for its extra range: it raised my rifle from 8-14cm, twice the adjustment range of the Accu-shot’s 10-13cm. Yet at twice the cost, I don’t consider it a rival to the more adjustable Accu-shot, for my purposes. I would still certainly use it instead of a rear bag but I find the fine adjustment poorer than the others. The CTK is simple and many people will prefer that at normal rifle ranges. However, for ultra-long range small targets, adjusting how the recoil comes back at you is absolutely crucial to me and only the Accu-shot offers this.

I did like the chunky no-frills MIL-SAK. It is the fastest to stow, very versatile fitment-wise, and the tallest, raising my rifle from 12.5 – 15.5cm. The addition of a lock-ring would make it a decent contender in many areas. Even without it, it felt pretty solid, straightforward and reliable.

What was not popular the relative slowness of this device compared to the others. Also, when you reach the extreme height, it simply unscrews and falls out. The CTK and Accu-shot have a stop at the max height so you know where to stop, and also this stop adds stiffness at full height, acting as a lock. It was also too high for every tester’s rifle.

However, despite the slower method of adjusting, I found the MIL-SAK pod stable and easy to use. I liked the slight play that it had, enabling me to manage recoil well. Again, as much as I personally like a bit of give, it is clearly superior to be able to adjust that and only the Accu-shot can. The play can be preloaded out by leaning on it more and in the field I did find it easy and effective in use.

It all rather depends on how you run your bipod. With a stiff bipod setup at the front like a Harris, the little play in the rear was pleasing to me. With a looser bipod on the front like a Versa-pod, I felt I was slopping from front to back too much and the MIL-SAK was not ideal as there was now movement at both ends. My preference was to run a loose bipod (Versa-pod or Atlas at its softest) and the Accu-shot monopod at the rear, locked up quite firmly.

Indeed my clear favourite was the Accu-shot, especially as it is by far the cheapest. A few little design features set this apart for me. The quick-adjustment, the lock rings that double for adjustment and locking, the easily-found fine tuning etc. It did have less adjustment range (10-13cm) than the CTK but in the field this ended up not being crucial to me. Photo here:

and stowed:

As a whole, I now consider rear monopods a significantly better alternative to rear bags and will no longer use rear bags on any of my rifles. Monopods are just as steady, probably more, and save much time when needing to make quick shots in that the monopod is always there and ready to go and large adjustments can be made almost instantly.

 

The Accu-shot range comes in all sorts of lengths and fitments and are available from rifle-cases.co.uk Nice people and also supporters of ukv (so they are at the sharp end of UK rifle work IMO)

The CTK P3 Ultimate monopod is available from the ever-useful www.midwayuk.com site

The MIL-SAK is available from the ever-helpful Fox Firearms

Look out soon for my review and comparison of various front bipods

 

Great stuff Rich.

On a standard AW I found the accushot to be about 3" too short for firing on anything but a putting green -perhaps the B&C stock has a more forgivingly deep toe?

[nell]

Very good write up....

 

Wee word of warning though,i have a Monopod on my Aics,works well with a short bench type bipod.When i first fitted it several years ago, whilst out lamping and after several setups on the bonnet of my truck,the following morning i was horrified to discover that whislt adjusting the pod i had drawn over the bonnet( a few neat patterns i may add) but took some serious elbow grease to remove the marks...

 

Often use it as Baldie describes, resting in a clenched fist...

[Breacher]

Having said that, i have a mate who uses one, but sets it half way, then grips the bottom and ajusts with tightening and slackening his fist.....works for him, but personally i think a bag beats them hands down.

 

 

 

 

I started off with a bag but having used the AccuShot on two rifles now, I wont go back.

 

And I use the same technique as your mate !!

 

 

[lambsey]

Great pics and review,

[lambsey]

Great pics and review,

[Narstar]

Great. Cheers